This invention relates to methods and devices for removing airborne pollutants from the environment experienced by moving roadway vehicles. The new method and device positions one or more pollutant filters in a land vehicle between the forward end and the radiator in an open area, duct structure, or air intake.
Various apparatus and devices may be known for capture or collection of roadway pollutants. These systems may include an air intake device, a fan or other apparatus and a particulate filter with a particulate storage container, for example, U.S. Patent Application No. 2007/0056254. In this disclosure the air intake device is positioned in the front of the vehicle, but may be positioned in multiple locations throughout the motorized vehicle. The apparatus is complicated in that a motorized vehicle must be modified to at least include an air intake device, particulate filter and particulate repository with fluid passages or tubing connecting the various parts of the apparatus. These types of apparatus and systems may take various structural forms, but in general are complex and require modifications to motorized vehicles.
Another example is the various U.S. patents and patent applications of Krantz of which U.S. Pat. No. 7,094,268, issued Aug. 22, 2006, is a general representation of a system and method for removing pollutants from a roadway. The method and system is structured to position a pollutant trap where it can be exposed to a roadway pollutant by affixing the pollutant trap, for example, in the wheel well, on a mud flap, or the underside of a vehicle or another suitable place where the pollution trap can be exposed to a roadway pollutant as described and disclosed in the Abstract and Detailed Description. The method emphasizes positioning pollutant traps in wheel wells, on splash guards or mud flaps, and under vehicles where an induced vacuum may be created to suck road surface pollutants to be disposed on pollutant traps. The patent states the pollution traps disclosed can be disposed anywhere on the vehicles where the pollutant trap pad can be exposed to roadway pollutants with teaching and emphasis on positioning in wheel wells and on mud flaps.
What is needed is a method and filter device that is easily positioned on and removable from roadway vehicles as a simple modification to a vehicle structure for removing airborne pollutants from the environment whether they are roadway pollutants or not.
There are numerous studies regarding the airborne pollution content of environmental air in the vicinity where land vehicles travel that includes vehicle pollutants, roadway pollutants, and general surrounding environment location pollutants. Use of existing vehicles with easily installed and removed filters for the removal of airborne pollutants will significantly aid in cleaning up the environment.
Pollution, pollutants, particulates and contaminants have been in the environment for years. The air we breathe has been improved over the years with more efficient cars and the invention of the catalytic converter. Smog and vehicle exhaust has been reduced. Yet, health problems continue to exist on a nationwide basis, covering the gamut from asthma and other respiratory illnesses to heart disease to cancer. Studies have shown that these adverse health impacts are greater within three miles of busily traveled roadways, and that approximately 40% of the American population lives next to a “busy road”.
What most studies haven't truly focused on is the defined pollutants as listed in the Detail Description section of this patent application that abound in the air next to these busily traveled roadways. The Applicant's experiments and lab tests have shown that a roadway vehicle operating with our flow thru air filter removes harmful particles, contaminants and pollutants from the environment. Imagine the pollutants removed if 10 million roadway vehicles used these filters.
Currently, individuals are freely and unknowingly breathing these pollutants, not knowing the enormous risk and health factors. It is believed to be important that these pollutants be removed from the environment, just as it was important back in the 1960s that the smog levels be reduced. A somewhat direct correlation is now beginning to be made between the breathing of these pollutants and health problems, including general health issues, respiratory illnesses, heart disease, bronchitis, and lung cancer. In children, it has been determined that breathing certain levels of air pollution and pollutants has adverse effects on lung growth, leading to significant risks in developing asthma and other ailments, up to and including cancer. These Pollutants on, around and near roadways are ingested by individuals, get lodged in the lungs, absorbed into the bloodstream, and into one's cells which creates enormous health risks for everyone. Though the body attempts to filter and dissolve the ingested pollutants it doesn't get them all. The pollutants that aren't filtered move around the body, through cell walls, and invade various tissues and organs.
Roadway vehicles may run cleaner and emit less pollution today than in years past, but they are still emitting numerous amounts of by-products, such as brake dust, rubber particles, fine metal toxins, exhaust, unseen toxic fragments, soot, oxides, etc., all of which are harmful to one's health and the environment. Some of these by-products are visible, some are not. The Applicant's studies have shown that some doctors have reported as much as 50-75% of their patients complain of some sort of upper respiratory (breathing) issues. Additionally, people that have never smoked are getting lung cancer. Various studies are now confirming, that the culprit of these ailments as to do with Pollutants in and around roadways.